A FAMILY of superheroes who defy mediocrity to defeat the bad guys and save the world from tyranny are being hailed as Hollywood standard-bearers of middle America’s values.

After the re-election of President George W Bush by voters who ranked moral issues above terrorism, the economy and Iraq, the hit film The Incredibles has caught the national mood.

Just as Bush supporters believe that the president will always follow his conscience, so will Mr Incredible, the beefy family man who cannot be forced to punch beneath his weight for long, and his wife Elastigirl, who bends but does not snap under pressure.

It is as if Hollywood had found the perfect vehicle for the Republican-voting “red” states. In its opening weekend, immediately after the November 2 elections, the animated film from Pixar and Walt Disney took $70.5m at the box office.

“Now we’re in a post- November 2 universe, the themes of The Incredibles look downright prescient,” wrote the film critic of National Review, a conservative magazine.

The John Kerry-sympathising New York Observer lamented: “It’s very much in the eye of the beholder but at the moment, to the butt-kicked, discouraged liberal team, the Pixar-built, shiny, muscle-bound cartoon creatures seem to come very much from the other team.”

The movie-going public can forget the message of Spider-Man 2 that “there’s a hero in all of us”. Nerdy Peter Parker’s conflicts and doubts belong to the era when a nuanced John Kerry was regarded as a credible presidential challenger.

In The Incredibles, son Dash — a speed freak — is stopped from competing in school sports. “Dad says our powers make us special,” he gripes to his mother.

“Everyone is special, Dash,” she rebukes him.

“Which is another way of saying nobody is,” he mumbles.

Liberal Hollywood has been licking its wounds since election day. While The Incredibles has been packing in the crowds, Alfie — starring Jude Law — has been playing to deserted cinemas.

The head of distribution at Paramount blamed Alfie’s disappointing $6.2m takings last week on Bush’s victory. “It could be the mood of the country right now,” he mused. “It seems to be the result of the election. Maybe they didn’t want to see a guy that slept around.”

Alfie’s easy lays do not bring him happiness. “I used to think I had the best end of the deal. What have I got really?” the playboy chauffeur sighs at one point.

The film critic of Movieguide, the Christian family-based magazine, suggested that the movie has a “redemptive world view” that “includes a pro-life message and positive comments about having a family”. But Alfie has been heavily promoted as a sexy, sophisticated New York story. It seemed tailor-made for the Kerry-supporting “blue” states.

The Incredibles is red state through and through. It opens with a pro-life condemnation of suicide and goes on to attack tort lawyers, whose powers Bush promised to curtail during the election campaign.

In the film this species of attorney — to which John Edwards, the defeated vice-presidential candidate, belongs — has sued superheroes out of existence, forcing them to live humdrum undercover lives.

Even then they are out-of-the-ordinary because of their love of family. “Yes, this is a superhero action movie about the sanctity of marriage,” the National Review critic exulted. “As Mr Incredible’s daughter tells her brother, ‘Mom and dad’s lives could be in danger — or worse: their marriage’.”

Ted Baehr, the Christian founder of Movieguide, believes that the film is a triumph of political incorrectness: “It’s not egalitarian. The Incredibles think of themselves as different.” He added that the success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ last year showed that the movie-going public wanted films with moral content.

At the Republican convention in August, Bush took a dig at Kerry and his celebrity backers such as Ben Affleck, Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg: “If you say that the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood, I’m afraid you are not the candidate of conservative values.”

Liberals are dismayed by the cultural hijacking of a medium that they had once owned.

Ted Rall, a newspaper cartoonist, said: “It’s kind of ironic that superheroes now have these fascist, right-wing connotations. The right has stolen our flag and our superheroes, too.”

He added: “I would be in favour of Empathy Man. The man who plants the seeds of empathy into the cold, stony heart of the average red-state American.”

As Arnold Schwarzenegger might say, he sounds like a girlie man.

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